Philips ditches home entertainment, sees future in razors and toasters

Another tech sell-off

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There'll be no more speakers, Blu-ray players or headphones from Philips as the company has sold off its audio and video business to a Japanese company.

Despite making money on the division last year, CEO Frans van Houten justified the move to Reuters by pointing out that the market for AV products is shrinking and "margin dilutive" (which means there's not much money to be made on each product).

Updated: Philips won't be disappearing from the electronics shelves altogether though - the new owners, Funai, will have the license to sell Philips branded goods (which, in fact, it already does in the US).

Sign of the times

Last year Philips sidelined its TV division by partnering up with TPV - or, rather, handing over 70 per cent of it to the Hong Kong based monitor maker.

Today's deal is completely separate to the TPV partnership, and Philips remains a major shareholder in the TV business.

The focus for Philips now will be on the very lucrative healthcare tech sector, as well as consumer products like electric razors, toothbrushes, toasters, juicers and coffee makers, so you should expect to hear significantly less about it on these here pages.

The AV business was offloaded to Japan's Funai Electric co for 150 million Euros (about $202 million, £128 million).